A TEST

(Sri Swami Ramarajyam)

There lived two old women in a village. One of them was rich but miserly; the other one was poor but very generous. They were next-door neighbours. At some distance from the village, there was an Ashram where Sadhus lived. 

Once the rich woman heard a knock at her door at midnight. When she opened the door, she saw that a Sadhu of the Ashram was standing. The woman was alarmed by his arrival. She thought—this Sadhu might have come to ask for something. What can I give? I have nothing to part with. She did not even ask him to get in. The Sadhu said, “Mother, huts in the neighbourhood of the Ashram caught fire yesterday. Some of them have been totally reduced to ashes. The inmates of these huts have taken shelter in the Ashram. They have lost everything. As you know, we do not have enough food and money in the Ashram to sustain them. I want you to help them as much as you can.” 

The woman said, “I can’t help you due to my poverty. I have only one old blanket and a little grain.” 

At that time, the other old woman reached there on hearing the conversation. The Sadhu said to the rich woman, “Have you nothing to give? Shall I go?” She said, “I am helpless, sir.” 

When the Sadhu was about to leave, he was startled to see the other woman as he was not aware of her presence there. She took the Sadhu to her house and said, “I have heard your conversation. Even though I do not have much in my house, I will give you whatever I can.” 

She went to her room and brought a bundle of clothes and a small bag of grain. Giving these to the Sadhu she said, “I know that those hapless people who have taken shelter in your Ashram need these much more than I do. I wish I had more to give to you.” 

The Sadhu took to the Ashram all that he had been given. The moment the Sadhu left, it started raining heavily. The rain was nothing short of a ‘Pralaya.’ In no time the houses of both the women were washed away in the downpour. What amazed everybody, was that it did not rain at all around and in the Ashram. Filled with horror and grief, both the women ran to the Ashram to take shelter there. The Sadhu was standing at the entrance of the Ashram. He took them indoors. 

The rich woman was weeping bitterly and wailing loudly with grief. She was saying, “I have lost everything, I have lost everything . . . my house, my property.” 

The poor woman noticed that the things, she had given to the Sadhu, were kept under the thatched roof of the Ashram. Pointing to those things, she asked, “Why have you not given away these things as yet?” 

The Sadhu did not reply to her but said to the rich woman, “I know very well that you gave nothing to me because of your attachment to property. That is why this Pralaya has devoured all your property. This poor woman gave everything she had. Look the things given by her are lying there intact.” 

Turning towards the poor woman, the Sadhu said, “This Pralaya was nothing but a test. You have passed this test. I am giving your things back to you.” 

Dear children, he, who parts with whatever he has for the sake of others, really loses nothing, but he who cares about none but his own possessions, loses everything. 

 

* * *